A few decent matches with some surprise results fueled a solid episode of NXT that fortunately didn’t rely on the appearances of WWE mid-carders. Sure, Alexander Rusev Summer Rae and Sin Cara were on the show, but the focus wasn’t on them at all.
Check out this week’s NXT Power Rankings to see what young stars shined the brightest in a rebound episode of NXT
Honorable Mention: Alexa Bliss: Her promo during the show makes you think she’ll get a decent push moving forward. A feud with Sasha Banks would do her good.
5: Calisto and Sin Cara: Sad that Simon Gotch and Aiden English’s steam was cut short to help build this new tag team, but lets be fair. Calisto and Sin Cara are super athletic and could definitely bring something different to the table in the WWE.
4: Charlotte Flair: Her win over Summer Rae proves even more that she’s the top female in NXT. But with Paige and AJ Lee fighting over the Divas title in the WWE, expect Flair’s stay in NXT to continue for a few months.
3: The Ascension: This team needs to move on to the WWE. Another job of squashes, they’ve accomplished everything possible for a tag team in NXT. The sad thing is that they are far from ready to be anything more than a mid-card team in the WWE. A middling WWE duo like Ryback and Curtis Axel has far more in-ring polish and charisma.
2: Tyler Breeze: His squash win over former NXT stud Mojo Rawley says a lot. It says Rawley must earn his keep from here on out, but it also screams that Breeze is cut from a different cloth. Just give the guy his title shot already. His interference in NXT Champion Adrian Neville’s match makes you think Breeze’s time will come soon.
1: Adrian Neville: With Tyler Breeze looking for his chance at the title, Neville will have his hands full very soon. Luckily for him, that’s when he does his best work.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
A few decent matches with some surprise results fueled a solid episode of NXT that fortunately didn’t rely on the appearances of WWE mid-carders. Sure, Alexander Rusev Summer Rae and Sin Cara were on the show, but the focus wasn’t on them at all.
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